It’s not the toddy that’s making them high. Palm planting under the State’s Haritha Haram programme in various parts of the district is going to fetch toddy tappers good money, that too, in little time.
Against the normal time of waiting for six years, the district authorities are ensuring that toddy can be tapped from the palm trees within four years of their plantation.
For the first time in the State, the district authorities had provided drip irrigation facilities under a pilot project to grow palm trees on 50 acres in various parts of the district in 2017. They had planted 530 palm saplings on each acre and watered them using drip irrigation.
Surprisingly, palm trees watered with drip irrigation are fully grown and ready for tapping toddy from 2020. Officials say each palm tree would provide three to eight litres of toddy daily.
Presently, each litre of toddy is sold at ₹50 in the district enabling a tapper to earn ₹250 per day per tree which provides five litres of toddy, on an average. With five to 10 palm trees, the rest is simple math and a real money high for the farmer.
First in State
District Horticulture and Sericulture officer Prathap Singh told The Hindu that Jagtial is the first district in the State to provide drip irrigation facilities to palm trees through the horticulture department. “On an experimental basis, authorities provided drip facilities to palm trees on 50 acres. Following the programme’s success, they had sent proposals for sanction of drip irrigation facilities to another 300 acres of palm groves,” he said.
Around 20 lakh palm saplings were planted on 3,284 acres in the district to benefit toddy tappers as part of their economic empowerment programme. “Palm trees grown under drip irrigation facilities on 10 acres in Anthargaon village of Jagtial mandal are ready for tapping by this year-end,” Mr. Singh said.